Teddy Bear Lovin'
by Ardin
Summary: My Valentine's gift to all of the Kibbs shippers out there: Kate wakes to an unusual surprise Valentine's morning.
1. Chapter 1

**Teddy Bear Lovin'** By Ardin

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of Elvis' music just like I don't own many of the other things I wish I did. Michael Shanks for instance would be a very nice possession.

Spoilers: None. Heck, you don't even need show knowledge beyond the fact that all the characters work together.

**A/N:** I tried to make this a surprise or at least provide some level of suspense, but you've all read my work before so…yeah its Kibbs. Making the decision not to even try to surprise you all actually made this easier to write because it allowed me to focus on the pure fluff aspect. ; D

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The incessant buzzing of her alarm clock pulled Kate out of a deep sleep. Groaning slightly she rolled over and tossed an arm out to hit the snooze button. Rather than connecting with the hard plastic of the clock her hand hit something soft which gave under the weight of her limb. The buzzing continued and she tried again, connecting again with something decidedly not her alarm.

Opening her eyes and sitting up, she attempted to make sense of the new development, something made incredibly difficult by the early hour. When her slowly clearing mind finally realized what she was seeing, her face lit up with a huge smile. It was several seconds before she realized that her alarm was still going off.

Reaching over the aberration on her night stand, she hit the off switch, no longer interested in another ten minutes of sleep.

While she still didn't wholly understand the why of the situation, at least she understood the what. Sitting perched on the corner of her bedside table was a small, black teddy bear. It was roughly five inches tall with a dark pink ribbon tied in a bow around its neck.

Picking the bear up, she glanced around briefly for a card or note of some kind. Seeing none, she frowned down at the stuffed animal in her hands. The frown was quickly replaced by a smile as she ran her hand gently over the soft fur, moving it to scratch behind the small creature's ear. It had been several years since she'd last had a stuffed animal and even longer since she had received one as a gift and the light weight of the bear brought back some very happy memories.

'The 0600 wake up call not withstanding,' she thought to herself as she set the bear down on the bed against her pillow, 'this is a hell of a good way to start Valentine's Day.'

Her good mood hit a momentary rough patch as the paranoia that came hand-in-hand with being an investigator struck her. Grabbing her gun from the night stand she made a quick tour of the small house, checking locks and windows. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, she allowed herself to calm down. Walking back to her room and depositing her weapon back where it belonged, she mulled over the facts as she stared at the creature on her bed.

Obviously whoever had left it had not wanted her to know who they were and just as obviously they must have had a key or there would have been marks of the entry around the apartment. She could only name four people who had a key to the place: Abby, Ducky, her sister Mary, and Gibbs. Her heart leapt at the very thought of Gibbs doing anything that sweet, but she immediately shook it off as being more Mary or Abby's style.

Shaking off all attempts at trying to figure out who the culprit was, she put it down to a very thoughtful Valentine's gesture and decided not to over think the matter; something that she knew from experience could easily distract her all day and prevent any real work from occurring. Making up her mind she went about her normal routine.

Having spent a few minutes picking out the clothes she would wear for the day, Kate made her way down the hall to the bathroom only to be greeted upon entering the room with yet another Valentine's surprise.

This one was dark brown. Same size, same pink ribbon and same lack of note or explanation. It was seated on the shelf just to the left of the medicine cabinet and mirror. Just as with her alarm clock, the small vase of pressed flowers that sat on the shelf had been moved only the few inches necessary to make room for the mini intruder. Nothing else appeared to have been touched.

Grinning stupidly to herself she walked the bear down the hall to her room and set it down on the bed with its companion. For several minutes she stood staring down at the pair, content that nothing would be able to bother her for the rest of the day.

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Normally Kate's drive from NCIS headquarters back to her home just outside Georgetown took half an hour in heavy traffic. The trip usually put her in a reasonably frustrated state of mind – the bumper to bumper cars, constant horns honking, and 3mph pace quickly fraying her nerves.

Normal, however, did not describe Kate's Valentine's Day commute home. An accident on the major freeway added almost twenty minutes to the journey, at least two people had tried to change lanes into her car, and her heater had stopped working leaving the car at the chilly outside temperature of 34 degrees Fahrenheit. But today the drive didn't eat at her patience, the good mood that had begun with her wake up call continuing to carry her through the day.

And now, as she exited off the highway just before dusk, her mood was even better because sitting in the passenger seat of her car were three more bears: one tan, one gray, and one light brown. All of them with the same, ubiquitous pink bow and none of them with any explanation.

The tan had been waiting for her when she'd opened her car door to head to work. It had been sitting in the driver's seat, carefully buckled in and after standing just looking at it for several minutes she unfastened the belt and took its place; sitting it in the passenger's chair. She had been tempted to take it into the building with her, but knew that it would only draw the unwelcome attention of Tony and his jokes so she'd left it in the car.

The fact that her 'secret admirer' – for lack of a better description – had gotten into her car had disturbed and disquieted her since no one else had a key. However, she kept reminding herself that both Gibbs and Abby would be more than capable of pulling such a thing off without a key and that fact calmed her fears considerably. In her heart she knew that the real reason that she kept attributing the little creatures to the people she knew was because she wanted it to be Gibbs. No amount of telling herself that all such thoughts were just pleasant daydreams that she should push away would completely banish them from her mind.

Sighing she'd given one last look at the tan bear before making her way to the parking level elevator, smiling happily as the object of her affections had only just barely managed to make it in behind her before the doors closed.

Despite telling herself to concentrate on the various tasks at hand, a project not made easier by the fact that those tasks all consisted of paperwork, she had found herself watching Gibbs surreptitiously throughout the day. His body language and attitude didn't seem any different than at any other time she'd known him, but that didn't stop her from shooting subtle glances at him, more so than usual.

Her preoccupation with his behavior only intensified, and she suspected became less subtle, after the gray teddy made an appearance. Just as had been true that morning, only the barest of things had been moved to make room for the small creature, this time her gun in its locked drawer in her desk. She had reached in for the weapon just before lunch, prepared to strap it on even for the simple task of grabbing a meal at the local deli. Instead, as with her alarm clock, her hand had impacted something soft, and it was only Gibbs' shout across the bullpen at Tony for his report that stopped her gasp of surprise from being audible.

She hadn't removed the animal, for much the same reasons that she'd left number three in her car, instead opting to take it at the end of the day when she would have the opportunity to sneak it into her purse without Tony seeing and commenting.

Most of the rest of the day had gone by as usual, with no more surprises, and it wasn't until the team was just an hour from going home for the day that the last bear turned up. Number five had surprised and confused her more than all the others put together because it had suddenly appeared in front of her computer monitor. That alone wouldn't have been at all disturbing except that she'd been seated at her desk at the time. She had gotten caught up in the report she was writing and while she didn't think that any of them had moved, she couldn't actually be sure and reasoned that someone must have.

Unfortunately she had been unable to get the bear off her desk before Tony had come sauntering into the bullpen and immediately felt it necessary to comment.

"Hey, Kate, cute bear, where'd you get it?" His tone was the one he used when he knew people didn't want to tell him something, but also knew that they would if he was just annoying enough for long enough.

She glanced in Gibbs' direction, once again trying to determine if his reaction gave anything away. His only expression, however, was the one that he normally wore when he was annoyed that they weren't working. Deciding that she wanted the conversation with Tony over as quickly as possible, she gave him an honest, if somewhat exasperated, response.

"I don't know, Tony. It just showed up; there's no note." She gave a light shrug of her shoulders as she spoke. The sincerity in her tone and honesty of her features must have convinced him that she was telling the truth because he gave a small shrug of his own before turning to head back to his desk. Kate had just released a happy sigh that the discussion had gone so quickly, when another voice joined the exchange.

"No note, huh? Maybe it's Paul, trying to get back into your good graces." Apparently Abby had caught their words as she bounced up from her lab.

Glancing over at the young Goth, Kate's attention was grabbed by the unhappy scowl that had taken over Gibbs' features at the lab tech's words. She didn't want to categorize it as jealous, but her heart caught in her throat at the hope that he might feel for her what she felt for him. At the same time that the hope was running through her it was being quickly put out by her disappointment that he apparently hadn't orchestrated her Valentine's surprise.

She couldn't really remember the rest of the conversation except that she had denied Paul's involvement; they'd broken up because of her long hours and his annoyance at the fact that her job came first. It had been mutual and reasonably friendly and she just couldn't see him going to the trouble after they had called it off. When the conversation had ended, she'd handed her last report to Gibbs before heading out for the night.

Finally pulling slowly into her driveway, she was only slightly disconcerted by the fact that she couldn't really remember most of the drive. Grabbing her purse, she tucked the three bears from the seat next to her under her arm and headed to the front door. Unlocking the door and striding into her hall, she carefully set down her keys and purse before striding down the hall to put the new three on the bed with the first two.

She didn't make it even two steps into her room before her surprise brought her to a halt. Sitting on the bed, resting up against the pillows exactly where she'd left the two that morning was a third larger bear. The smaller black and brown bears were tucked against the new intruder's sides and she couldn't help but laugh at the image they made.

Overcoming her shock she walked slowly to the bed, set the three bears she carried down, and picked up number six. The bear's fur was soft and silky like the previous five, but unlike the others it was almost a foot and a half tall and absolutely pure white. The ribbon and bow around its neck was a bright pink and a small, red, heart-shaped card was threaded onto it.

Hesitating slightly, she opened the folded card stock. Neat, typed words ordered her next move: "Squeeze my paw!" Raising an eyebrow and smiling uncertainly, she gave the right paw a squeeze and when nothing happened she moved her hand to the left, prompting the only barely muffled voice of Elvis Presley to fill the otherwise silent room.

_Baby let me be your lovin' teddy bear _

_Put a chain around my neck and lead me anywhere _

_Oh, let me be _

_Oh, let him be _

_Your teddy bear _

_I don't wanna be a tiger _

_'Cause tigers play too rough _

_I don't wanna be a lion _

_'Cause lions aren't the kind you love enough _

_Just wanna be your teddy bear _

_Put a chain around my neck and lead me anywhere _

_Oh, let me be _

_Oh, let him be _

_Your teddy bear _

_Baby let me be around you every night _

_Run your fingers through my hair and cuddle me real tight _

_Oh, let me be _

_Oh, let him be _

_Your teddy bear _

_Oh, let me be _

_Oh, let him be _

_Your teddy bear _

_I just wanna be your teddy bear _

She smiled widely as the song came to an end and the smile only widened as a voice she knew only too well followed.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Katie." Even with the recording's distortion, Gibbs' voice was warm and affectionate, and Kate couldn't help the couple of happy tears that had welled in her eyes from running down her cheeks at the familiar use of her nickname.

His silent encroachment into her home as she slept and than again that afternoon she put down to his days as a Marine, but she still couldn't figure out how he'd gotten into her car or into the locked desk drawer and she suspected that she probably didn't want to know. And as much as that still bothered her inherent curiosity, it didn't really matter because he'd given her the best Valentine's day she'd ever had.

Not setting the large, white bear down, she moved out of the room, grabbed her car keys from her entryway table and headed for her car.

TBC…

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A/N: Sorry about the format on the song. No matter how hard I tried I just couldn't get the verses to format properly. I don't know what's wrong since I've never had problems in the past.

The second chapter will be posted at the end of the day today. I wanted to have a little suspense going and it seemed appropriate to start and end the day with a little bit of Kibbs. I know it takes a while for the postings to appear some times, so I'll try to post at around 11:30pm (US MST) so it will actually be there before the day ends.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Here's the second/last chapter. Thank you all so much for your great reviews.

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The drive to his house was not nearly as nerve wracking as she would have expected it to be. She suspected that were the circumstances surrounding this visit different than they actually were, she would have felt decidedly uncomfortable with the entire thing: facing long-standing feelings, entering his home, his private space.

However, such feelings of nervousness did not last long in the face of his decidedly sweet and romantic gesture. She had always suspected that he was capable of such behavior despite his otherwise stern demeanor and she smiled happily at being proved right.

A gentle grin firmly in place on her lips, she pulled her car into his driveway, stopping at the walkway to the front door. Extracting her keys from the ignition and depositing them immediately in the pocket of her jeans, she grabbed the large, white bear from the passenger's seat and headed up the walk.

She honestly wasn't sure what to expect from this journey, but the note that she found taped to his door was not anywhere on her list:

"Kate: In the basement. Come on in."

Her smile widened at his intuitive knowledge of her behavior and opened the door, taking care to shut it firmly behind her – though not before she had pulled the note off the wooden door.

She didn't make her way immediately downstairs, instead taking the rare opportunity to inspect the private side of his life. She had never before had the chance to do so, though she sincerely hoped that this would not be her last entry into his life outside of work.

The first floor had a distinctly lived-in and homey feel to it; an alluring pairing of professional design aspects and the day-to-day clutter of real life. Stepping out of the short entry way into the large, open living area she smiled at the décor. Several medium-sized landscape photos hung in dark, wood frames providing a sharp contrast to the rather large collection of personal snapshots which lined the fireplace mantle.

The same dichotomy existed in the kitchen, where a wide array of professional – and very clean – appliances formed a back drop for the pair of dirty coffee mugs in the sink and the white refrigerator door which was barely visible under a coat of everything from an old team photo to a child's drawing with 'To Uncle Jethro' written across the bottom.

Continuing further into the house, she found the door to the basement open and she hugged the teddy bear in her arms one last time before stepping out on to the landing.

Despite the fact that she was sure he was aware of her arrival, he continued to sand the wood rib in front of him until she stopped on the bottom stair.

The light smile that graced his features only intensified as he turned to her and saw his last gift clutched tightly in one arm and widened even further as she brandished the note from his door at him and spoke.

"You knew I'd show up, huh?" Her grin let him know that she didn't mind his presumption.

"I hoped you would." His voice was gentle and sincere as he gestured her further into the basement.

Moving into the space, Kate took full stock of the work in progress before her and the man himself as he moved comfortably around his space. Walking to the workbench against the wall furthest from the stairs, she set down both the note and the bear – taking care not to get his white fur dirty. She questioned Gibbs silently with her eyes when he turned to face her and waited for his nod of approval before hopping up to sit on the table.

As he continued to work on his boat and she sat and watched, they both considered just how comfortable they felt in each other's presence. Neither felt particularly compelled to talk, though both knew that eventually they were going to have to have some kind of discussion. Nothing had really happened to force the subject, but for some reason they both suddenly felt ready to face the attraction that they'd pushed to the back of their minds and hearts over the previous two years.

Almost half an hour passed without either saying anything. Gibbs steadily worked away at the frame of his boat as Kate watched, subconsciously stroking her hand over the fur of the bear next to her. When he finally stood away from the boat to look at her again, she spoke, her tone tender and honest.

"Thank you." She half expected him to shrug it off; to act as though he hadn't done anything worth the thanks, but – as was so often true – he surprised her.

"You're welcome."

Moving out from behind the boat frame he leaned up against the rib opposite her waiting for her to speak the thoughts that he knew were on her mind. He didn't have to wait long.

"Why?" The single word was spoken in a steady tone, but she couldn't seem to bring herself to look at him, instead focusing on her feet hanging before her in the air.

"You told McGee that you hated Valentine's Day." His tone of voice suggested that that should be all the information that she needed as explanation, but when she looked up at him with a vaguely confused frown he continued speaking. "When we were driving back from a scene a week or so ago, we passed a shop front covered in pink hearts and flowers, and when McGee noticed you scowling at the display, you told him that you hated Valentine's Day."

Her frown of confusion didn't lessen any at his words. She couldn't understand why her dislike of the sappy, Hallmark holiday would cause him to go to as much trouble as he had. He had stopped speaking and was shifting uncomfortably against the wood behind him. She had a feeling that his discomfort sprang more from the fact that he was having to explain his actions than his physical position, but just when she was going to ask for a little more reasoning, he spoke again.

"I know I'll never win any awards for being a really romantic sort of guy, but I still like the idea of Valentine's Day. It's an opportunity to let the people we love know just how much we care about them." He made no attempt to sensor his words and his expression suggested that he knew he'd used the usually dreaded four letter word and that he'd meant it. He closed the distance between them with just a few short steps. Still staying for the most part outside her personal space, he rested his hands on her knees. "I didn't want a couple of bad past experiences or a string of lousy boyfriends to stop you from enjoying the day."

Her eyes had begun to well with tears when he'd implied that he loved her, and his heart-felt admission that she should like Valentine's Day sent a few trailing down her cheeks. Looking up into his eyes for the first time since he'd started speaking, she was surprised by the level of adoration and affection they reflected. Running her mind back over his words, she suddenly felt the absolute necessity to tell him how she felt as well. Keeping their eyes locked she spoke.

"An opportunity to let the people we love know just how much we care about them, huh?" He nodded silently, a slight tinge of worry taking up residence in his eyes, but it was quickly dispelled as she continued. "I should have gotten you something then."

Her smile seemed to light up the entire room and was echoed by a large grin on his face before he responded. "You're here now, that's enough for me." Leaning in slowly, he brushed his lips against hers, the brief contact still managing to send a jolt of electricity through him. When he pulled away enough to look in her eyes, a look of desire and love that he was sure mirrored his own was evident on her face and he stepped forward between her legs, sliding his hands up to her waist as he did so.

With just a few inches separating them, she spoke again, her voice light and airy despite the underlying worry. "I still feel I should have gotten you something."

Pulling his upper body away just slightly, a mischievous smile crossed his face. "Well there is one thing I can think of." Leaning to the side, he gave the teddy bear's paw a squeeze and as the music filled the basement, he let himself be pulled back to her.

_Baby let me be your lovin' teddy bear_

_Put a chain around my neck and lead me anywhere_

_Oh, let me be_

_Oh, let him be_

_Your teddy bear_

She smiled brightly as the first verse of the song drifted through the air around them and he barely had time to return the grin before her hands looped around his neck and pulled his lips back against hers.

_I don't wanna be a tiger_

'_Cause tigers play too rough_

_I don't wanna be a lion_

'_Cause lions aren't the kind you love enough_

The kiss was slow and heady; the scent and taste of Gibbs enough to make her dizzy and Kate was suddenly very glad that she was sitting down. One of his hands stroked up and down her back lazily while the other kept its position on her waist. He tasted of vanilla and root beer and had her mind not been wholly occupied by the sensations of his lips and hands, she would have found it funny to think of the stern man she knew eating a root beer float.

_Just wanna be your teddy bear_

_Put a chain around my neck and lead me anywhere_

_Oh, let me be_

_Oh, let him be_

_Your teddy bear_

Her arms were wrapped around his neck and he felt absolutely sure that there couldn't possibly be any better feeling in the world than the one he was experiencing at that moment. She tasted of coffee and the mix of his two addictions into one package threatened to destroy every ounce of mental capacity he had left.

_Baby let me be around you every night_

_Run your fingers through my hair and cuddle me real tight_

_Oh, let me be_

_Oh, let him be_

_Your teddy bear_

He pulled away slowly and reluctantly as oxygen became a problem, managing to get in one last closed mouth kiss before they were fully separated. Resting his forehead against hers he spoke in low, rough tones.

"Would you like to have dinner with me?"

"Yes."

_Oh, let me be_

_Oh, let him be_

_Your teddy bear_

_I just wanna be your teddy bear_

Gibbs' voice blended with the recording as he leaned in to kiss her again. "Happy Valentine's Day, Katie."

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A/N: So that's it. I hope everyone had a very Happy Valentine's Day. Reviews are adored. I love to know how you guys feel about my writing.


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